#closetheschools is trending

[Allthestarsarecloser]

I work at a university on the front line seeing students 1-1 (I work in student support) and have continued to see students this term at a distance & with measures in place. ALL the students I have seen have been grateful for the human contact.

I also have 2 kids in primary and secondary. I want them to stay in school as my eldest had to have counselling after the last lockdown.

Aibu to say that schools need to stay open and I say that as someone on the front line.

YABU - they should shut
YANBU- they need to stay open

Any union must act in the best interests of its members, whether that's about health and safety, terms and conditions or any other matter. That's what their members pay their union subscriptions for and to do otherwise would be a massive breach of trust.

Agreed. But it's extremely irritating that MN is currently being used in a concerted effort to trash schools being operational.

The schools need to be open. If people want to hide in their homes with their children indefinitely, let them. The rest of the world has to carry on.

Parents need schools and childcare so they can continue to work, children need schools so they can have a break from home, be educated and be out in the world with their peers.

I love my job, trust me you have to to put up with the challenges and poor wage. But, I don't think schools are a safe place to be right now. I teach reception and there are zero safety measures in place to stop me or the children contracting coronavirus. The ones that are in place seem to just be for show, and realistically wouldn't actually stop the spread. If one person in my class gets it, it's very likely we would all get it.
Does that mean I think schools should close? No. But it does mean I think there should be more robust safety measures put into place, and if there can't be then perhaps things would need to be reconsidered.

All the more reason to treat this like any other flu and carry on with life as normal never fails to amaze me how some people know so little, after nine months of the world's top doctors appearing on tv, print and online media to explain Covid is nothing like flu, some still wheel out this line!

Covid is not flu, is nothing like flu, cannot be responded to like flu.

The just flu brigade always appear at some point...

If one person in my class gets it, it's very likely we would all get it.

I don't think infection patterns have been like this though.

Those who are saying they want schools to stay open because it is too difficult to WFH with children off school need to consider those who can't work from home who are at greater risk of losing their jobs the longer the businesses who employ them are shut down. Businesses will stay shut down for a very long time if the infection rates don't come down, which they are unlikely to if schools, colleges and universities stay open.

@Bluebellbike but surely if schools close and they can't WFH they're gonna lose their jobs right now as they cant go into work?

It's not just teachers who work in schools and have contact with the children. People forget that bit...

YANBU children's education has suffered enough and the less advantaged have suffered more. They need the teaching and they need the structure and social contact too. I fear too many will slip through the net if schools closed. And as the parent of two older kids one at college and one at uni I know they are desperate for them to stay open.

I think after 4 weeks they will see how the transmission is going, if its going down at a good level, they will keep schools open, if not, they will shut schools early and have a circuit breaker style lockdown using 2 weeks of school holidays and possibly an extra 2 weeks. Thats my guess anyway.

Our neighbouring county had 18 staff and 27 pupils get it in the first half term.. so without including senior schools and assuming single form entry (two massively conservative estimates into it) it works out at 0.06% of all students and 0.4% of teachers in the county had it. We do not need to close the schools.

If they shut the schools and you could rely on parents not to organise indoor meet up’s and play dates, organising sleepovers, or taking little X’s friend out in the car for a day out, turn a blind eye to teens roaming around and meeting up in large groups, or dropping the kids off at granny and grandads etc. I agree it would definitely help the rise in transmissions to fall but unfortunately you can’t rely on the majority of the public to actually do the right thing.
As a parent in the shielded category and with two teens one doing GCSE’s this summer and one in the first year of an A level course personally both kids MH was so much better with the normality of school even though at DD’s school they can’t wear coats and have all the windows flung open etc.

Covid is not spreading hugely in under 16s though is it? It's been said from the beginning and noted in all countries. There's not been an explosion of cases in school age children. It's young adults, those age 16-24 and probably teachers should socially distance from other staff members. So there's a stronger case to switch further and higher education to remote learning but probably lots have anyway.

@roxyfoxy89 my child’s reception bubble closed with a case, no one else got it (or at least had symptoms) and no parents have reported symptoms either. Ditto for other people I know at different schools. Why do you think you will all get it?

The spread in school is through teachers and adult staff, not the children. Please keep them open, it's a real struggle to work looking after two young children. Luckily I have a supportive employer who would allow me to work from home, but it's still really hard to get any work done without using the tv and iPads to entertain them.

I feel really angry about this - the Govt really are the most incompetent bunch of dickheads
In Sept when they opened the schools they should have fixed a 2 week half term in Oct -same 2 weeks for all schools - and then said that this would be used as a firebreak lockdown if necessary. Then when the scientists started to call for a lockdown they would have had 2 weeks where all schools would be shut
They didnt do this they just kept arguing with individual areas over the tier bollocks and then decided to lock down after the half term with the schools open Having been criticised for locking down too late in March they have just done the same think again
I cant bear it for my kids = young people are being fucked over here

I work in a school and undoubtedly feel they need to stay open, but I don’t think they need to stay open more than people’s businesses need to stay open.

If it’s not safe to wear a mask to go into a socially distanced shop then it’s not safe to go into a school. Everything should stay open or everything including schools, should shut.

I agree that schools need to stay open for those who need it but there unfortunately some schools are doing considerably less than others in terms of bubbles/distancing etc and Ofsted really should step in to enforce tight rule guidance.

I also think Boris should permit those who want to keep kids at home to do so without off-rolling, particularly if they have vulnerable family members at home and they can show they have measures in place to ensure learning will continue at home (eg purchased online educational programmes etc).

I'd happily keep mine off and feel it would be helping but then I'm a teacher (currently sahm) so capable of planning and delivering. I know there won't be many in my situation but those who are should be given the choice, I think.

The spread in school is through teachers and adult staff, not the children

Says who?

Everything I've seen recently has shown kids to be super spreaders?

@MiddleClassMother

The spread in school is through teachers and adult staff, not the children. Please keep them open, it's a real struggle to work looking after two young children. Luckily I have a supportive employer who would allow me to work from home, but it's still really hard to get any work done without using the tv and iPads to entertain them.

Do you have stats to prove that? Or does it just translate to wanting the free childcare to make life easier?

Bubbles here are being popped with child cases who take home to families as well as being shared with staff.

Elderly and vulnerable should be asked to shield again before school close.

Does anyone on this thread ever check any data, or do they just all make things up or go with half remembered , out of date data, thereby spreading misinformation?

If the schools keep shutting how will we give grades to the current year 11s who missed months of year 10 and either need to be ready for exams or producing work so we can give centre assessed grades.

There are several sides to this -

1. Schoold need to stay open for education, because teachers are usually trained in their subjects and how to deliver them - however, many of the more practical subjects (e.g. Drama, D&T, Science) are hardly running or being taught the way they should be, because the need for safety measures doesn't allow for practical work to take place, so huge chunks of those curricula are missed anyway.

1. Schools need to stay open for childcare purposes - parents with young children or those with more severe cases of SEND who are also working need schools in order to carry out their jobs, even if remotely. Yes, school id not the same as childcare, but those hours do make a difference when actual childcare is so expensive and hard to come by (in my area I had to register my child during pregnancy in order to get a place).

1. Schools are a contact point for Child Protection cases and goodness knows there have been a huge number of families needing that support, be it from a monetary perspective or because parents were too overwhelmed to actually care for their kids properly.

1. Social distancing is not possible in schools. Children and especially teens barely keep their hands off each other at the best of times, let alone meticulously follow the routines set in place for them. Smaller class sizes and a rota would be a possible solution, but interfere with points 1 and 2.

1. Schools are being given no money and no official powers to enforce safety. Be it having to spend £££ on masks for children who "forget" or snap theirs every day, providing wipes/ sanitisers for every classroom, having to pay for extra cleaning (staffing, insurance, equipment), not even having the powers to exclude those children who provide a serious safety risk by purposefully crossing bubbles daily. No powers to discipline, because of time and bubble restrictions, so detentions cannot run as they would. No handing out of equipment to those who have none and will spend every lesson being disruptive, because they can't use a pen they don't have (and can't share).

1. Staffing schools is a serious issue. Due to bubbles bursting in school, across year groups, the teachers' own children's year groups, health issues due to not being able to access medical care, mental health issues because many schools STILL pretend that schools should run as normal, including rigorous performance appraisals.

There is no easy solution without a huge cash injection, more staff (in a shortage profession), parental support and the more care from children.